Max Verstappen (Red Bull) has therefore announced the color.
Orange, like that of the Netherlands and its hundreds of supporters who have invaded the stands of the Zandvoort circuit.
At home, the Dutch driver set the best time (1 ′ 08 ′ '885) in qualifying for the 13th Grand Prix of the season this Saturday.
The recent winner of the incredible Belgian event is ahead of Lewis Hamilton by 38 thousandths of a second and Valtteri Bottas, the other Mercedes driver.
Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri) completes the 2nd row.
In the end, just 0.038s separated Max and Lewis!
😮 # DutchGP 🇳🇱 # F1 pic.twitter.com/kq5MNRt06o
- Formula 1 (@ F1) September 4, 2021
This qualifying session was once again eventful.
The first surprise came during Q3, which saw Sergio Perez, the Dutchman's teammate, completely miss his time.
The Mexican will start in 16th place.
Two accidents then punctuated the session.
George Russell, Lewis Hamilton's probable future teammate, and then Canadian Nicholas Latifi, his teammate at Williams, found themselves in the same wall of tires within minutes of each other.
🚩 RED FLAG 🚩
Russell slides into the barriers
He manages to get going again, radios his apologies to the Williams team and heads back to the pits #DutchGP 🇳🇱 # F1 pic.twitter.com/Ia3t1c2OnE
- Formula 1 (@ F1) September 4, 2021
On the French side, Pierre Gasly once again responded favorably to expectations.
The Normand driver sets the 4th fastest time, 256 thousandths behind Bottas.
The two Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz will start side by side in the third row, ahead of the surprising Italian Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa-Roméo) and the two Alpine of Esteban Ocon and Fernando Alonso.
The Finnish Kimi Räikkönen (Alfa-Roméo), who announced this week at the age of 41 to retire at the end of the season and be affected by the virus, was replaced for this Grand Prix by the Polish Robert Kubica (18th).
As a reminder, Hamilton is still the world championship leader (202.5 points), just ahead of Verstappen (199.5).
In the event of victory tomorrow Sunday, the latter will take control of the standings.
It had been 35 years since the calendar had stopped in the Netherlands. In 1986, the Austrian Niki Lauda won ahead of Alain Prost and Ayrton Senna. The event had been added to the calendar for 2020 but the covid-19 pandemic had forced the organizers to cancel it before the renewal for this year.